Love Is A Battlefield
by WhatAWildThing
Summary: We are young, heartache to heartache we stand, no promises, no demands. Love Is A Battlefield. We are strong, no one can tell us we're wrong."


_Don't own Naruto, and no this is not a song fic._

_Can't say much else, this hasnt been beta'd so beware!_

_Enjoy!_

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From the earliest memories of the academy, Kunoichi can always tell you the first and most enforced lesson they were taught. Sex is your most valuable weapon. That as soon as you tie that headband on you, it made your body a tool, an instrument for interrogation. By age twenty, all the Rookie Nine females, plus Ten-Ten had been on these specialized missions.

A lot of ninja had been appalled, when at age seventeen, Hinata had to become a concubine in the harem of a feudal lord. For the safety of the village, he had become power hungry, besides he liked the innocent ones. She left with an escort and a pale peach kimono.

Autumn leaves fell as she returned, alone and a black mark on her cheek. She had gone home immediately after reporting to the Hokage. Sneaking in through a back entrance, she went straight to the bathes. Striping down and settling into the steaming water, tears ran down her face as she scrubbed pale flesh to an angry red.

Two days later and still no word of if she was ok, her friends began to worry. In particular a certain loud mouth ninja. So in true Naruto fashion, he went busting into the compound, the guards had learned they simply couldn't keep him out, and sought her out. He found her in the dimly lit room she slept in, curled into a ball on her bed.

"Short stuff." He called softly, his nickname for her making her turn weary eyes to him.

He opened his arms in welcome. "It had been my first time, he laughed." She murmurs, leaping up into his arms, crying into his neck.

Azure eyes flickered crimson and back again. He tasted madness on his tongue. Pressing an airy kiss to her lips, a silent promise he would protect her.

And months later, when the time came to dispose of the lord, he would not go back to his familial lands, not one ninja tried to stop Naruto from being the one to dispose of him.

Sakura, shortly after her seventeenth birthday, too, was assigned such a mission. She left on a rainy Tuesday, early and chilly. Watching from the top of the gates, Sasuke felt helpless as she walked out into the gray light. No escort accompanies her, it upsets him.

Rain pounded down on the town of Kohona when she returned, Sasuke remembers perfectly, a Friday, 4:37 in the afternoon. She is limping, covered in angry bite marks and large black bruises. Leaping down from his perch, he fixes her with gleaming black eyes.

"What did he do?" Violence implied in the ground out snarl.

She shrugs. "He liked to be rough." Coal eyes twist into bloody spirals involuntarily. Scooping her without so much as a warning, he kisses a red welt above her eye. He feels her begin to shake, finally a human reaction.

"Do not worry blossom, he will suffer." An empty promise he knows, he can't just hunt him down, not anymore. Crying laughter lights shining eyes, he wishes he could torture the bastard.

As he carried her slowly, and without hurry towards the Uchiha district, ninja smile knowingly and continue on with their days.

Ten-Ten oddly had been the youngest when she went on her first female mission. In theory, the mission seemed very straightforward, infiltrate a high end brothel and wait for a particular mark. What none of the ninja convened had expected were certain…_complications._

Tsunade had asked for volunteers, Ten-Ten had stood up automatically. First times were inevitable; she might as well get it over with now. Two things had happened almost simultaneously, one there had been a loud crack of splintering wood, and a collective gasp at the cause.

Neji stood, seething none too subtly, part of the chair he had been sited in, shattered in his hand. The shinobi sat for a moment in shocked silence, before standing, bowing to the Hokage, and 'poofing' away. Clearing her throat, the blonde pinned the Hyuga with a highly exasperated look.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Neji." Averting fury glazed eyes from a shocked kunoichi to the blonde, he growls lowly.

"Hai." Carefully composed neutrality.

"She volunteered for this mission." She states, pointing a painted finger at Ten-Ten. "You will not throw a temper tantrum over her _mature_ decisions."

He nods once, glancing over at the still gaping brunette. "Ten-Ten, report back here tomorrow for details and a medical examination." Tsunade addresses her now, shaking her head quickly, snapping herself out of a daze, she bows.

"Anything else, Lady Tsunade?"

"No. You are dismissed." The weapons mistress bows again, and with one more disbelieving look at Neji, she 'poofs' away as well.

Smiling softly, she leans forward, resting her chin on her folded hands. "Neji, I suggest you make her last thoughts of home be you, and your love, so she can pretend its you when…" The blonde trails off but it still makes Neji's mouth go dry all the same.

And a week later, as Ten-Ten walks out the gates towards the land of Turquoise, not one ninja questions the way he kisses her so possessively. They do however admire the image of a bird, in flight, on her shoulder.

Ino's first mission had gone smoothly, her mark had not been her first, he had not left marks, and there had been no fit thrown at her decision to go. It had felt…off. Like with each thrust, he had hollowed her out more.

When she returned nobody waited for her, she went _home, _not her apartment, she needed the comforting aroma of lingering flowers and warm tea. The door was locked; her parents must be on missions. Pulling her keys out of her pocket, she used her old one to open the door.

Smiling, she climbed the stairs, going into her old bedroom and then into the bathroom. After showering she raided her father's closet, pulling on one of his shirts over her underwear and bra. Returning to her room, she crawls into her old bed, her mom had washed her sheets recently, they smelled like lavender.

The next morning, she wakes up to the muted light of another winter morning. Stretching, her stomach growled, reminding her she had neglected it. Climbing out of bed, she goes to pee, brush her teeth and contain her hair in a messy bun. Sliding down the banister, she hears polite knocks at the door; the person didn't want to wake her.

Opening the door, she finds Chouji, dusted in snowflakes, burdened down by bags. Moving over to let him in, glorious smells of fried food and sweets, fill her nose. As he enters, he stops and kisses her on the forehead before continuing on into the kitchen.

"Ino, get your self in here." He calls, she closes the door and follows the smells and sits at the table. Humming softly to himself, he places loaded down plates of oil-soaked dumplings and sinful chocolate cake, in front of her.

After eating herself into an almost coma, she migrates to the living room, flopping down onto the couch. Sitting down at the end of the couch, he picks of one of her feet, massaging it lazily. He stays all day, and as twilight begins to fall, she goes to take another shower.

Steam billows out of the bathroom as she opens the door going into her room. Her door opens, she doesn't worry, he's seen her in less and she trusts him.

"Ino-" He stops short, looking at her with soft eyes. Taking a step towards her, he pulls her to him. Kissing her slowly. Not demanding anything, she smiles. Letting the hand holding the towel around her go to his neck, the terry cloth slipped to pool at her feet.

Later, she lays on his chest, rising and falling evenly. The moonlight spills into the bedroom and its so damn cliché, she laughs softly. _This_ felt right, she decides, running a hand lightly over his skin.

And the next day, when fellow ninja saw them playing in the fresh snow like kids again they smiled and laughed.

Love was a battlefield that only the kunoichi could fight on.

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_Review and ye shall receive a cookie. :D_


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